According to a number of sources, Microsoft has apparently spoken to close partners and filled in the final blanks on what the hardware configuration is going to look like on the Next Xbox or Xbox 720. Perhaps the most interesting news is that Microsoft is still targeting a release during the holiday season of 2013; and the latest news suggests that Sony could be closer to releasing the PlayStation 4 than had been thought.

The hardware for the Xbox 720 seems to be very close to what we have been hearing, with a few exceptions. The CPU will be four or six cores, depending on some decisions that will be made closer to launch. We do know that one of the CPU cores will be reserved for Kinect, which will be included with the 720; and one of them will be allocated to the OS. This is why we believe that a six-core processor will be the ultimate decision despite additional cost.

Perhaps the most interesting news is that while the unit will be powered by something like a customized AMD 7000 series GPU, the Xbox 720 is said to be getting two of these GPUs. The two GPUs are said to run in a normal dual PC style setup: the GPUs take turns drawing lines of the same object or the dual GPU configuration can run independently of each other, drawing or rendering independently of the other GPU. It is believed that the configuration is more independent and simultaneous, rather than dual GPU technologies such as CrossFire or SLI. In addition, it is believed that the power of the GPUs can also be leveraged to offer DirectCompute style functionality.

The 720 will feature a Blu-ray drive standard and the drive is said to be enhanced for better performance and access times. While it isn’t confirmed, it is most likely that the drive has been tuned for backwards compatibility; and that does seem likely given the choice of a CPU in the same family. The 720 will come standard with the next generation Kinect, which will apparently be built into the device.

The final decision on storage has yet to be finalized. As we told you, Microsoft is apparently still considering some sort of solid state solution for storage, but we are told that going with a hard drive has not been ruled out, either. As for actual software delivery, that also has not been finalized. It is apparently possible that Microsoft could offer both a solid state card solution as well as a Blu-ray disc solution, depending on developer needs.

More intriguing information is that Durango will apparently require an “always on” Internet connection as an anti-piracy measure. It is unclear if any offline play will be allowed on the unit. Apparently, the unit will need to be connected to the Internet even when playing single player games. Slow Internet connections are said to be “OK” for this connection. While you may not have enough bandwidth or too high of latency to play online, it will apparently be enough to allow you to use/access the console. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft does this so that it does not overly contribute to the bandwidth caps that many are starting to endure.

As we told you Nintendo is planning to release more information on the Wii U a little at a time. Nintendo has confirmed that we should expect a major information drop on the Wii U ahead of E3 this year in June.

The next round of information that is expected will address some of the Wii U’s technical specs that have been leaked by developers. It is now believed that the Wii U use a Quad Core 3GHz PowerPC processor using 45nm process technology. The CPU is said to be very similar to the CPU in the Xbox 360. The unit is said to feature 768MB of RAM that is shared between the CPU and GPU, but the company is also experimenting with a 1GB of RAM version to evaluate performance benefits versus cost. The unit will be powered by an AMD graphics processor, but exactly what features this GPU is going to have is also apparently up in the air.

One new rumor that we continue to hear is that despite their initial claims that the unit would only support one tablet controller per system, apparently the company will offer the ability to connect at least two touch screen controllers to the unit. Developers that we have spoken with in the shadows say that they have also heard this rumor, but nothing has been confirmed to them.

What most continue to agree upon is that Nintendo will have a playable version at E3 and it is still on track for release for the holiday season in 2012. Right now it seems that these are the two things that everyone mostly agrees upon.

Nintendo could employ a new tactic for the Wii U, which is to provide a pretty continuous stream of information about the Wii U till it launches. Reggie Fils-Aime has suggested that this could be the strategy that the company will use.

While the company didn’t break any new news about the Wii U at CES, Fils-Aime has been quoted as saying that, “We will be sharing a lot of information through the year on how we will be driving the Wii U into households this year”.

Sounds like we will not have to wait till E3 in June to get more details; but we suspect that the real juicy stuff (such as the launch date, game lineup, and how much it will cost) is likely going to wait till E3. Word from Fils-Aime is that “…the launch line-up for the Wii U will have titles that are going to drive the install base of the platform.” That is news that we are going to have to see to believe.

Many software developers that we have spoken with claim that they are still on the fence about the Wii U. What this means is that while some titles with be headed to Wii U, they have not yet opted for all out developing for the platform. Third party titles have not been as successful on Nintendo platforms as of late, and this is making many developers cautious till they see consumer response and initial sales numbers.

It is said that the act is part of Anonymous’ pro-Occupy Wall Street movement. The information contains Moynihan’s phone, address, financial details as well as the number of lawsuits he is in.

We’re not sure how that is supposed to help anyone’s cause other than encourage the overzealous protesters to give him a knock on the door. On the other hand, Moynihan will at least have a scare, which is pure vacation compared to what us mortals and commoners go through on daily basis, not least when dealing with banks.

This is not the first time though, as the group did the same with personal information of CitiGroup CEO Vikram S. Pandit, Project Veritas’ James O’Keefe and others. Furthermore, Anonymous is also held responsible for the leaked data from International Association of Chiefs of Police, Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association and two law enforcement organizations from Alabama.

Security analysts Strategy Analytics are warning that companies are under threat from their employee's use of smartphones.

According to Strategy Analytics, sales of mobile devices in the second quarter of 2011 grew 16.5 percent year-on-year. Smartphone sales grew 74 percent year-on-year and accounted for 25 percent of overall sales in the second quarter of 2011, up from 17 percent in the second quarter of 2010.

What is causing the problem is that where staff used to carry laptops when they went out of the office, to retrieve email and use other applications on the move, they can now carry just a smartphone. This potentially allows them to send and receive emails, use a variety of applications, link to the company network to access data and use network-based applications, access social networking sites, and carry out online e-commerce and banking transactions.

As a result they lose them. Research by getsafeonline shows that about one in five owners of smartphone devices can expect to lose or have them stolen at some point.

Surveys show the level of phone loss in London taxis is at a world-leading, and fairly consistent, 10,000 per month. To make matters worse there has been pressure on IT staff to connect these smartphones to VPNs and a lost phone is an automatic entry into the company network.

Philippe Winthrop, an analyst at consultancy Strategy Analytics said that if he took a tablet or a smartphone and mucked around with it, he could find the VPN it is set up on. It's a huge risk not being dealt with enough today. Getsafeonline’s Tony Neate added that users must remember that they are essentially carrying around a tiny laptop with a wealth of personal information that is very attractive to fraudsters.

BAE Systems has unveiled their latest innovation which could be the fashion industry's next big thing - body wearable antenna.

To be fair, BAE has not seen the fashion implications of what it wants to do. It has flogged the idea on the basis that it will help transform the way in which soldiers communicate on the front line.

Rather than conventional radio whip-antennas which can be cumbersome and conspicuous, body wearable antenna are woven into the fibres of a soldier's uniform to enable armed forces to see through the eyes of their team mates in real time and instantly know the positions of friendly and hostile forces. However once the camera is miniaturised it would be possible to connect to anyone on the move and see a business meeting through their eyes.

At the moment, a demo has been developed to showcase the capability of this technology which transmits voice, video data (from a helmet-mounted camera) and GPS location via the same antenna.

More than 27,000 South Koreans have signed up for a class-action lawsuit against Apple accusing the company of privacy violations regarding location data stored on the owners' iPhones. The $26 million suit was officially filed in Changwon District Court yesterday.

According to Associated Press, each person wants Jobs' Mob to write a cheque for $932 in damages. Kim Hyeong-seok, one of their attorneys, said that the suit targets Apple and its South Korean unit to "protect privacy" rights. The claim is that the location-tracking feature on the iPhone inflicted emotional distress on the device owners who are already under enough stress, having been identified by their mates as being dumb enough to own one of the shiny toys.

Apple denied tracking iPhone users, claiming the data collected in the unencrypted file was merely information on cell tower and Wi-Fi network locations. Later it admitted that there was a software glitch which prompted iPhones to send anonymous location data to Apple servers from devices whose location services were disabled.

Microsoft has been having some problems with its Xbox Live Marketplace and its Games for Windows Marketplace. The issue seems to be centered on some sort of an internal error; and we are told that users can rest assured that it is not a security breach that has exposed user data.

From what we understand, the “internal operational error” is causing issues with users trying to browse and purchase content. Microsoft is throwing all possible resources at the issue to get it resolved as quickly as possible. As of this writing, there is no clue as to when they will get resolution for Marketplace.

Last time a similar situation happened, Microsoft gave everyone who downloaded it a free copy of Undertow. We have no idea whether Microsoft will be giving something away as an apology for the problems. Our sources do whisper that they don’t expect the problem to continue much longer.

Symantec is talking rubbish when it claimed that a flaw on Facebook was giving personal data to advertisers. Symantec claimed that keys which would have given advertisers access to Facebook accounts were being accidentally shipped to them.

The insecurity outfit admitted that the advertisers probably did not know that Facebook had given them such powers. However Facebook trashed the comment saying that it appreciated Symantec raising this issue and that they worked with them to address it immediately.

But the whole thing was pretty silly. The keys expired after two hours and no private information could have been passed to third parties. Facebook added that there were contractual obligations of advertisers and developers, which prohibit them from obtaining or sharing user information in a way that violates Facebook policies.

Facebook denied there was any security scare and people should not be worried. However it has fixed that particular problem, just in case anyone was spooked.

The great unwashed are getting more information from their civilian internet applications and as a result, militant groups' access to intelligence rivals what government spies can get.

According to Israel's Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin, cyber technologies were an ascendant international security threat. Basically his argument is that since knowledge is power, the wrong people are getting power. In fact, the only people that should be that informed are governments.

"Intelligence once enjoyed only by countries and world powers can now be obtained through internet systems like Google Earth, internet cameras that are deployed all over the world and linked to the web, or applications for iPhone devices that allow for quality intelligence to be received in real-time," he told a homeland security conference in Tel Aviv.

He said that there was a "mounting debate" among Islamist militant groups over the internet on how to exploit international aviation.